Anonymous wrote:It’s gross that in this day and age she made Heathcliff white. WTF. Other races exist, and even Emily Brontë was aware of them and gave the character a fully realized personality, not just one of slave or peasant.

Since when was Heathcliff not European?

Anonymous wrote:Heathcliff was not white in the novel? I didn’t realize that.

It’s ambiguous. He’s described in a way in the book that would lead you to assume he’s not white, but at that time the description could have been about someone from Ireland, who would have been viewed as not white by the British. The point is that he isn’t another white guy from England, in the context of the novel he’s an “other”.

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Anonymous wrote:From what I read, Heathcliff is described as a gypsy and a dark stranger in the novel. Could it just be that he’s dark in mysterious or does it imply that he’s from a completely different race? I never understood it this way. The actor who plays Heathcliff is tall, dark and handsome.

He was dark by 19th century English standards, which means eastern or southern European - still white.

Agree. This is how it's been generally interpreted through time. Examples of previous Heathcliffs: Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton, Ralph Fiennes. Tom Hardy, Timothy Dalton.

Anonymous wrote:From what I read, Heathcliff is described as a gypsy and a dark stranger in the novel. Could it just be that he’s dark in mysterious or does it imply that he’s from a completely different race? I never understood it this way. The actor who plays Heathcliff is tall, dark and handsome.

He was dark by 19th century English standards, which means eastern or southern European - still white.

Anonymous wrote:Heathcliff was not white in the novel? I didn’t realize that.

He was.

Anonymous wrote:I thought Margot Robie was too old for the role. The sex made sense in the passion of the story, but there was a lot of BDSM imagery that was disturbing. Heathcliff should not have been white, but that man was hot.

Why shouldn’t he have been white?

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Anonymous wrote:I enjoyed the movie OP to answer your question. Steamy + fun to watch. DCUM will take the fun out of anything. The filmmakers were quite clear this movie was not a direct adaptation from the book which is over 150 years old.

Understatement of the decade.

I haven’t seen the movie but I think the posters are saying it’s a real missed opportunity to make a hot interracial relationship that would be more true to the forbidden love nature of the book.
But maybe the filmmakers were a little uncomfortable making healthiff who is sort of a bad guy or at least morally ambiguous the sole POC.

I read the book dozens of times as a teen but need to reread it as an adult.

This is sort of beside the point but I listened to an interesting podcast about Elizabethan England saying there were actually a lot of people pf North African descent — via the moors in Spain and interactions with Spain — in England and most converted and intermarried so there are actually a lot of Brit’s with African ancestry. They did a whole study of 17tj century parish records.

I think when I read it as a teen I didn’t know what lascar meant and assumed he was like a “black Irish” kid speaking Irish (gibberish). But re-reading. an African or Indian kid makes more sense—or likely mixed race with white father and African or Asian mother, which I’m sure tjere were tons of. The 2013 movie Belle is a true story of a late 18th century British woman whose mother was an African slave and father was a British sea captain — a great movie and a story that definitely would have been known to Bronre since it was a big part of the British abolition movement. I think it’s likely she intended heathcliff as a similar character — a child of a woman of color and a white British father who was adopted by a friend or relation of the father.

There are a ton of mixed race British actors so I don’t feel like it would have been that hard for them to find someone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I enjoyed the movie OP to answer your question. Steamy + fun to watch. DCUM will take the fun out of anything. The filmmakers were quite clear this movie was not a direct adaptation from the book which is over 150 years old.

Understatement of the decade.

HA! Seriously!

So many wound up people on this site. I can't wait to see the movie.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I enjoyed the movie OP to answer your question. Steamy + fun to watch. DCUM will take the fun out of anything. The filmmakers were quite clear this movie was not a direct adaptation from the book which is over 150 years old.

Understatement of the decade.

HA! Seriously!

Anonymous wrote:I enjoyed the movie OP to answer your question. Steamy + fun to watch. DCUM will take the fun out of anything. The filmmakers were quite clear this movie was not a direct adaptation from the book which is over 150 years old.

Understatement of the decade.

I enjoyed the movie OP to answer your question. Steamy + fun to watch. DCUM will take the fun out of anything. The filmmakers were quite clear this movie was not a direct adaptation from the book which is over 150 years old.

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Anonymous wrote:The book made his race the reason they couldn't be a match. The movie reduces it to class.

I think it was a miss. When a book from the 1800s can be more insightful about race than a movie in 2026, that's kind of wild.

A “gipsy” man or any person who was darker than the usual Engish person would have been considered below them. He wasn’t necessarily black.

Regardless, it’s interesting that those of you upset by Elordi’s casting have nothing to say on the topic of Hamilton, a musical about REAL people who happened to be white but were played by POC. At least Heathcliff is fictional.

Someone addressed Hamilton above, you just disagree with the viewpoint of PPs.

You mean the person who said Hamilton (a show based on real people) was “open to interpretation”?

Guess what: a fictional character is most definitely “open to interpretation.”

Only people who don't know what lascar means would think it's open to interpretation. It was a common word when the book was written.

Are you actually claiming “lascar” means black? Because it doesn’t. And again: this is a work of fiction. Hamilton is about real people.

DP. I don't think anyone is saying lascar means black. But it definitely does not mean white. He's not just an Englishman with dark hair.

The book is ambiguous enough about his race that he could be what we today would consider white (e.g. Spanish or Romani) but they at the time did not. There's plenty to support him being SE Asian, though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From what I read, Heathcliff is described as a gypsy and a dark stranger in the novel. Could it just be that he’s dark in mysterious or does it imply that he’s from a completely different race? I never understood it this way. The actor who plays Heathcliff is tall, dark and handsome.

I mean, some of the Irish were considered gypsies back in the day. And the black Irish were white people with dark hair, dark eyes (sometimes), and skin that tanned rather than burned.

Heathcliff was totally a white guy in the book…he was just dark haired, tan, and a gypsy.

Agree. DP.

Anonymous wrote:From what I read, Heathcliff is described as a gypsy and a dark stranger in the novel. Could it just be that he’s dark in mysterious or does it imply that he’s from a completely different race? I never understood it this way. The actor who plays Heathcliff is tall, dark and handsome.

I mean, some of the Irish were considered gypsies back in the day. And the black Irish were white people with dark hair, dark eyes (sometimes), and skin that tanned rather than burned.

Heathcliff was totally a white guy in the book…he was just dark haired, tan, and a gypsy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The book made his race the reason they couldn't be a match. The movie reduces it to class.

I think it was a miss. When a book from the 1800s can be more insightful about race than a movie in 2026, that's kind of wild.

A “gipsy” man or any person who was darker than the usual Engish person would have been considered below them. He wasn’t necessarily black.

Regardless, it’s interesting that those of you upset by Elordi’s casting have nothing to say on the topic of Hamilton, a musical about REAL people who happened to be white but were played by POC. At least Heathcliff is fictional.

Someone addressed Hamilton above, you just disagree with the viewpoint of PPs.

You mean the person who said Hamilton (a show based on real people) was “open to interpretation”?

Guess what: a fictional character is most definitely “open to interpretation.”

Only people who don't know what lascar means would think it's open to interpretation. It was a common word when the book was written.

Are you actually claiming “lascar” means black? Because it doesn’t. And again: this is a work of fiction. Hamilton is about real people.